@Necrikus: Ah, the famous operation "Run like a bitch." I happen to play it with Plasma "In the Zone" sniper on the second walkthrough- the easiest mission ever. Chrisalids are always in the open and plasma oneshots them. GG.

@Oliver König: I thought Xcom 2 is a lot harder than Enemy Unknown, but Xcom 2 also gets easier late-game. Rushing in Xcom 2 is your doom, if you took it slow then you did right, I stopped rushing objectives until I got a full squad outfitted with armour and plasma.
Then it's OK.

I found the game a lot easier, actually, and foremost the Terror Missions. Then again, I already had a habit of advancing carefully since the last time. XD Point of comparison is regular difficulty, not the higher levels. Maybe those are harder.

Personally, I really hate Vipers. Pull a soldier miles away and hold them forever. I try to not leave any soldiers wounded, but the beggining of the game is... Ugh. Sufferable to say the least.
Luckily after plasma weaponry and WAR/Wraith suits everything goes smooth.

I don't think Chryssalids are weaker in 2, I think the issue is that they come in the mid-game rather than the early game. By the time you have tier 2 gear and have high ranking soldiers (and can field 5-6 of 'em) I stopped having issues with them in 1 and 2. Save for that one mission in EW.

Original Chrysalids were horrifying, and the Tenticulats (sp?) from TFTD were even worse (because they could "fly"). First few times I ran into them in the new XCOM were pretty bad, then got to be ho-hum. Then the Long War mod made them scary again by adding Lightning Reflexes and more HP.

I'm watching two let's plays [no money for the game :( ] and one of them is already approaching the end game equipment, and Chryssalids still haven't showed up! I think this is the problem with them; In the previous game they were a mid-level terror unit, now they don't even appear until late game.

@Norafin: they do occasionally. However, there are less civilians on the terror missions now and newly born crysalids die to a single grenade/CQC proc now. Also, by the time you get crysalids, you usually have enough aoe attacks and resets to wipe them without slowing down the squad.

I agree, the new Crysalids are just... kinda there. They rank about as high in my danger-book as a basic advent trooper, wich is not at all.
However their burrow-overwatch with enough range to charge to a soldier even if they were scanned is annoying.
(Do they ever attack civilians? Never seen it)